From the Therapeutic Justice to the new Drug Law

the way the criminal justice system deals with drug users

Abstract

The focus of this article will be to present the data of this research that begins in 2005, when I carried out an ethnography in some Special Criminal Courts (JECrim) and in the Therapeutic Justice program (JT) of Rio de Janeiro. This research is a relevant contribution to the present dossier as it clearly shows how an alternative measure for drug users was “boycotted” by law enforcement officials and also how this situation can be considered within a broader context about administration institutional use of drugs. Taking as a starting point this ethnography that I carried out in these courts and in that program, I intend to show that the operators of the justice system seem to be unable to deal with the crime of “drug use”. From there, based on the discussion on the practical effects of the new drug law, I present a broader discussion, in order to outline a context of the specificity of the institutional administration of drug use in Rio de Janeiro.